Arts Express: Elijah Wood Talks Set Fire To The Stars

Set Fire To The Stars

Elijah Wood and Celyn Jones, co-stars of this literary film noir touching on the last days of poet Dylan Thomas in America, have an intimate discussion with Arts Express at the British Consulate in New York City.

Topics discussed include the beat poets, punk rock, Elijah’s journey from Frodo to hero worship, Auden, Blake, McCarthyism, and the radicalization of Thomas by the struggles of the Welsh miners. And, Dylan Thomas as angel, beast or madman – or all of them.

Mia Wasikowska Talks Madame Bovary

The actress has a conversation through phone from Australia, and talked about her new film adapted from the Flaubert novel. The actress mulled corsets, rabbit holes and mirrors. And the art of vanishing magically into the screen personas of literary figures, including as well Jane Eyre and Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland, while inhabiting a very different past world. Or is it?

The World Film Beat

Professor Dennis Broe reported on location from Paris, delved into film trends, culturally and politically, currently surfacing in Europe. Themes included the surrounding capitalist cruelty, the corporate parceling of Yugoslavia, and not so much war is hell, as war is for sale – both on and off screen.

Arts Express, Thursdays 2pm ET: Airing on WBAI Radio in NY 99.5 FM, and streaming live and archived everywhere at wbai.org.

Prairie Miller is a New York multimedia journalist online, in print and radio, who reviews movies and conducts in-depth interviews. She can also be heard on WBAI/Pacifica National Radio Network’s Arts Express.